St John Ambulance calls in GolinHarris for comms blitz

The first-aid charity is concerned that its work often gets overlooked. It is planning an integrated marketing campaign to encourage the public to reappraise the brand and the importance of its work.

GolinHarris has been brought in by recently installed director of marketing Scott Jacobson, himself a former GolinHarris consultant.

The agency has been asked to support the corporate, consumer and digital campaign. On the corporate side, the agency will attempt to raise the profile of both the organisation and its senior management to stress the range of its activities across the country, its effectiveness in developing life-saving skills and how it supports communities.

The first burst of media activity will kick off before Christmas. Associate director Marc Sparrow, who leads the account, said one of the campaign's messages will be to showcase the importance of first-aid training, stressing it is a matter of life or death.

St John Ambulance previously used Good Relations, but took the PR account in-house last year.

The appointment comes seven months after Jacobson, former head of corporate comms at Orange, joined St John Ambulance with a brief to modernise its comms.

Jacobson is the charity's first director of marketing, comms and fundraising.